Rate: unsurprising comments from Christine Lagarde

(Boursier.com) — Christine Lagarde once again affirms that maintaining the deposit rate at 4% should be enough to control inflation, but does not rule out the idea of ​​a potential increase in borrowing rates if necessary . “The level we are at now, if we maintain it long enough – and we can debate this, of course – will contribute significantly to the return of inflation to our 2% target,” the leader said during an event organized by the ‘Financial Times’. “If major shocks occur, depending on their nature, we will have to come back to them.”

The president of the European Central Bank spoke following data showing that headline inflation in the euro zone slowed to 2.9% in October, the weakest pace in two years. “We really need to watch the price of energy going forward… We should not assume that this respectable figure of 2.9% is something that should be taken for granted for long.”

The ECB, which left its deposit rate unchanged at 4% last month, forecasts that inflation will return to target at the end of 2025 and that consumer price growth will stagnate around 3% for most of the year 2024.

Asked about a faster quantitative tightening, the head of the ECB insisted on the fact that there would be no outright sales of debt, but that a discussion on reinvestments as part of the purchase program of pandemic emergency bonds “should occur” at some point.